[Web4lib] "Ask a Librarian" role: popularity, questions, benefits, costs

[Richard Wiggins]

Dear Web4libers,
 An old friend writes a column on computing for AARP. He's doing a piece on
"Ask a Librarian" services. Gabe is a thoughtful fellow and will treat your
thoughts and remarks with care.
 Here is his author's query:
 Rich, thanks for forwarding this to the list you suggested.

I'm writing an article for AARP's Computers and technology Web site,
http://www.aarp.org/computers, about the blossoming "Ask a librarian" services
popping up everywhere. The services seem great, comprehensive, free, and
very useful.

I'm chatting with a couple very helpful librarians about this; I thought
getting comments from more people would broaden my perspective.

So I'm interested in hearing from the library/librarian community on this --
what's led/leading to its popularity, the sort of questions people pose,
whether it increases/decreases librarian workload, how libraries deal with
questions from people outside their service area, how it's supported
financially, and (especially) any tips for people to use it effectively?
Also, do you know of articles published on the service?

Thanks...